So it seems, based upon their starting position, NHL is willing to settle for a revenue split of 52% NHLPA, 48% owners. That will be a tough pill to swallow for the players, but it is smething they might be willing to do if the NHL drops the escrow requirement.

I can't see the union caving on the length of time before players become free agents. They might trade that off for contract length limits of 7-8 years. Can't see salary arbitration going away as there is no good system to replace it with. I also don't see the entry level conract length being increased, especially if the union caves on the revenue split.

Looking back, it is amazing how well the last labor deal ended up for the players (so well in fact that they want to continue with it, and the owners are looking to get a better deal this time around). The players fought to avoid the cap, but the fact that a salary floor was implemented and the cap/floor have kept rising at ridiulous paces have basically caused parity in the league and been much better for the players than they ever coud have imagined.

I just hope they can resolve this without missing any games. Fehr is a very tough negotiator and is good at what he does, and based upon his past history with the MLBPA, he is not afraid of taking these things to the mat (hell, the strike he led in 1994 resulted in a World Series being cancelled).

"The $297,297 Kovalchuk missed today is money he will never, ever get back. And the more cheques he misses, the better the deal is going to have to be for the players to justify him sitting out. And unlike the owners, the players can direct their leadership to get a deal done regardless of how disadvantageous it is to them."

Can't see salary arbitration going away as there is no good system to replace it with.

I can see it dropped, (but not so much if the UFA time gets pushed higher.)Sure there is. You don't like their Qualifier, don't sign it and go somewhere else to play, if there is actually someone making you an offer that is.

I see a LOT of room for negotiating with all the terms in play.

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Over? Did you say "over"? Nothing is over until we decide it is!Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor? Hell no!

The 5 year for entry level contract may be a bit to long for a player to wait, by 3 years you got a good read most of the time on a player. Asking them to play at what could be bear minimum contract, I don't know is this too long? I see a potential downside to this but I agree these lifetime UFA BS contracts have got to get more realistic.

I can see it dropped, (but not so much if the UFA time gets pushed higher.)Sure there is. You don't like their Qualifier, don't sign it and go somewhere else to play, if there is actually someone making you an offer that is.

I see a LOT of room for negotiating with all the terms in play.

Essentially that would get rid of restricted free agency and that's a problem. If they were to get rid of arbitration they would at least need to add a cap discount for re-signing RFA's.

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of No OneProud to be King of the Kovalnuts (Est. June 2010 by MantaRay)

Essentially that would get rid of restricted free agency and that's a problem. If they were to get rid of arbitration they would at least need to add a cap discount for re-signing RFA's.

Nah, it just gives owners a little more power in this aspect of negotiating with a RFA, it wouldn't get rid of them, just give them less ability to bite back. Like a qualifying offer would either have to be accepted of rejected still, but now instead of going to arbitration with an unsatisfying qualifier, you would go onto the market, still as a RFA if they wanted to keep some sort of compensation in place. They'd just have to hash over scenarios and values for these RFA's.

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Over? Did you say "over"? Nothing is over until we decide it is!Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor? Hell no!

I can see it dropped, (but not so much if the UFA time gets pushed higher.)Sure there is. You don't like their Qualifier, don't sign it and go somewhere else to play, if there is actually someone making you an offer that is.

I see a LOT of room for negotiating with all the terms in play.

Don't sign it? The player doesn't have to sign it, the team just has to make the qualifying offer to retain the rights + protect from offer sheets.

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So it seems, based upon their starting position, NHL is willing to settle for a revenue split of 52% NHLPA, 48% owners. That will be a tough pill to swallow for the players, but it is smething they might be willing to do if the NHL drops the escrow requirement.

I can't see the union caving on the length of time before players become free agents. They might trade that off for contract length limits of 7-8 years. Can't see salary arbitration going away as there is no good system to replace it with. I also don't see the entry level conract length being increased, especially if the union caves on the revenue split.

That's a reasonable guess for the final CBA, and that would certainly take missing half the season to make happen. If it's true that most NHL teams lose money in the regular season, then there's no reason why that wouldn't happen too.

Don't sign it? The player doesn't have to sign it, the team just has to make the qualifying offer to retain the rights + protect from offer sheets.

hmm not quite, by making the qualifier, the team retains the right to match a signed offer sheet for 7 days. If the player doesn't sign the qualifier, he remains an RFA and can negotiate with other teams. He can get offers from other clubs, and the team he's on can choose to match it or let em walk. Granted, the new team would have to give some sort of compensation, but I can see that being adjusted too.

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Over? Did you say "over"? Nothing is over until we decide it is!Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor? Hell no!

Nah, it just gives owners a little more power in this aspect of negotiating with a RFA, it wouldn't get rid of them, just give them less ability to bite back. Like a qualifying offer would either have to be accepted of rejected still, but now instead of going to arbitration with an unsatisfying qualifier, you would go onto the market, still as a RFA if they wanted to keep some sort of compensation in place. They'd just have to hash over scenarios and values for these RFA's.

This would give more power to the players. It would essentially make them unrestricted free agents.

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of No OneProud to be King of the Kovalnuts (Est. June 2010 by MantaRay)

so a player would sign an entry level of 5 years... then sign a 5 years maximum contract... then it would bring him DIRECTLY to free agency as an unrestricted free agent... there would be no way around it unless you sign him 4 years or something...

i really dont think the players will agree with a 5 years entry level contract especially when you saw guys like Tavares, Stamkos and Doughty cashing in BIG MONEY at 21 years old... of course owners would like it... i'd certainly like to have Larsson and Henrique costing 1,8m COMBINED for 5 years lol

personally to be fair to everyone i'd keep the entry level at 3 years, 7 years max contract and i'm not to sure of the period players should play before reaching UFA... im glad we got Kovy in his prime but it sucks to see Zach go in his prime too lol

There will have to be some concessions made by the owners to get the NHLPA to agree to these proposed changes that only financially favour the owners. Changing what is considered NHL revenue reduces the pot for the players and then the cuts in percentages and the increased length of the contracts only spells LOCKOUT for the NHL next season.

But... they are not UFA'sUFA's signing elsewhere nets no compensation for the original team, these RFA's signing elsewhere get the original team draft picks from the new team.

This is how it already works now. Players don't have to sign the qualifying offer. By removing arbitration, you just increase the chance of hold outs.

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This is how it already works now. Players don't have to sign the qualifying offer. By removing arbitration, you just increase the chance of hold outs.

Which is why I can see it going the way of the Dodo.By removing arbitration, I think it adds power to the owners to not have to pay higher $$ for a player. Now, I have not been a close follower of the arbitration, but I do not recall ANY player being taken to arbitration by the team to save money, it is mostly, if not always, the player seeking more money.

I'm going to see what google knows about that stat.

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Over? Did you say "over"? Nothing is over until we decide it is!Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor? Hell no!

Which is why I can see it going the way of the Dodo.By removing arbitration, I think it adds power to the owners to not have to pay higher $$ for a player. Now, I have not been a close follower of the arbitration, but I do not recall ANY player being taken to arbitration by the team to save money, it is mostly, if not always, the player seeking more money.

I'm going to see what google knows about that stat.

Players have been taken to arbitration to try to reduce their contract. I can't remember the last time it happened - Parise was threatened with it last year, and Mason Raymond was threatened with it this year but he settled. Basically it's a good way to get a player really angry at you, to trash him in an arbitration hearing.

Arbitration isn't going away. I wonder if they will try to change to baseball-style arbitration where the team names a number, the player names a number, and the arbitrator selects one of those numbers. In hockey, the arbitrator can award anything within the range that the team and player pick, leading players to ask for the moon and teams to ask for nothing.